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Chris Bentley column: Rugby needs to remember its roots

Bentos is back - it's the former Exeter Chiefs player's first column of the season

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by Chris Bentley, David Byrom

12:15, 28 Sep 2017

Dave Dennis of Exeter Chiefs goes over for a try against Wasps(Image: Phil Mingo/PPAUK)

As the Aviva Premiership enters its eighth season, the face of rugby union continues to change at a pace – perhaps not all for the better.

Allow me to start this season’s Bentos column by recognising some traditional values of respect and fellowship that remain firmly at the core of our game.

Having been involved in a brutal clash with the knee of a rampaging Nathan Hughes, Exeter Chiefs’ Sam Simmonds lay face down obviously in serious distress in Sunday’s encounter. In an instant, Nathan Hughes changed from enemy to best friend as he cradled Sam’s head, protecting his opponent from further injury. Alerting referee JP Doyle to the situation, Nathan stopped the game for the greater good of his opponent.

Yes, rugby is a tough, confrontational game where the collisions are brutal and the desire to win is great, but that code between gentlemen and warrior continues to define and remains an element that elevates rugby to be such a special game.

Hats off to Nathan and the further good news is that Sam, our impressive Teignmouth youngster, is okay and recovering well from his injury.

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What price tradition then? In general terms, professional rugby remains very much in its infancy. Let us not forget that it is only 21 years since the amateur Courage League gave way in 1996 to the professional Allied Dunbar Premiership of just 10 clubs.

Zurich took on the Premierships sponsors mantle in 2001 to be followed by Guinness in 2006 and current sponsors Aviva from 2010. I watched with interest as rugby reached out to the USA in a bid to attract a new and bigger market, and more money of course. What a dismal effort that turned out to be, with a torrid atmosphere enduring an 80-minute arm wrestle between Sarries and Newcastle to reach a result in front of a 90 per cent empty stadium.

Conversely, the NFL came to Wembley on Sunday and packed out our national stadium as the Americans seek to exploit a new and potentially lucrative UK market.

Taking a pragmatic look at the facts, Premiership Rugby and the member clubs are shouting loudly and trumpeting the success of our game looking overseas for big international sponsors. Hey ho, say I – that is precisely the way football went to result in the obscenely high costs and player wages that simply take the breath away.

Is that the way we want rugby to go? A multi-millionaire circus where agents and players derive riches beyond anyone’s dreams only to drive the cost higher and higher, distancing the game from its grass roots fans?

Which is the only Premiership Rugby club to continually operate in profit? The answer is, of course, Exeter Chiefs. Just maybe Premiership Rugby and other club owners should take a breath and consider the path they are taking the game along. We openly criticise football for its profligate extravagance and obscene excesses, yet it appears that this is the very same path many rugby clubs are seeking to follow.

Stop I say, and consider the traditional values that make rugby the finest team sport in the world. Yes, it is a short playing career and it is only right and proper that players are properly supported and remunerated for their skill, commitment and effort, but there are limits.

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It seems totally wrong to me that football players, other sportsmen and their agents command salaries and benefits 10, 20 and even 100 times that of the Prime Minister, doctors, nurses, engineers, farmers and other essential bricks in the wall that builds and sustains our society.

It amazes me that the Pro 12 have seen fit to bring in South African clubs in an effort to bolster and grow their struggling league. I occasionally cross swords with Chiefs CEO Tony Rowe, but on his vision for self-sustaining profitable elite-level rugby clubs, I stand as one firmly in his camp of operating within one’s means and a self-sustaining budget.

The act of a drowning man is to thrash about seeking even a blade of grass on which to grab hold and hang on. Had the man stayed within his depth and ability to swim, he would not be drowning.

In the Aviva Premiership, we have a great product. My view is that we should stop day dreaming and get real by consolidating and cementing in place firm foundations within our local communities and regions.

As Chiefs sales manager, I have the opportunity to look far and wide for an international corporate sponsor or billionaire fat cat to join our club with their millions and maybe even put their name on our stadium. but is that what we want?

Pundits and commentators keep referring to the Chiefs as the new boys and aspirants who are yet to prove their playing worth over a sustained period. To those so-called wise men, I say take the bag off your head and look at the reality.

Exe have demonstrated a winning formula on and off the field. I know our sponsors by their first name. They don’t fly in from overseas to an international airport and arrive at the ground by helicopter only to look important in the director’s box before flying back to their overseas home.

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Let me be clear, I am all for ambition, aspiration and excellence. I want to see the very best playing for our club and I accept that a quota of overseas stars is a good thing up to a level. However, I thought it even more creditable when eight members of the Chiefs squad who won the 2017 Aviva Premiership came through the ranks of our academy.

What a great performance from the lads on Sunday. Indeed, what great performances from our lads all season.

Were it not for that blip on a Friday night at Kingsholm when a spirited Gloucester edged us out at the death with more than a little support from the man with the whistle, Chiefs would be unbeaten since October 2016 in 21 consecutive Premiership games.

Next up, it’s the mighty Tigers and their army of faithful fans at the equally formidable Welford Road. As Rob Baxter would say, what better motivation for a club player that run out with his team mates, take on and beat the Tigers on their turf?